Top picks Standhardinger (left) and Ravena are instant millionaires after getting juicy contracts.—SHERWIN VARDELEON
While Christian Standhardinger and Kiefer Ravena cornered maximum, multiyear deals with the PBA teams that selected them 1-2 in the Draft on Sunday, the next three selections in the talent-laden pool would most likely have to settle for a little less.
Blackwater, which made hard-nosed big man Raymar Jose of Far Eastern third overall, former La Salle ace Jason Perkins, picked fourth by Phoenix Petroleum, and Alaska’s Jeron Teng, also a former King Archer in the UAAP, will be making a little under the maximum allowable salary for rookies when the season opens Dec. 17 with the Philippine Cup.
Jose, who was a back-up big man for Gilas Pilipinas in the Jones Cup, is set to sit down with management on Thursday, where team manager Johnson Martinez will give him a tender offer of P120,000 a month for the first year and P180,000 for the second, a pact similar to what Art dela Cruz got two years ago as the No. 9 pick.
“I would like to see first what he can give us,” Blackwater owner Dioceldo Sy said of the 6-foot-5 Jose, a hard worker who has the willingness to rough it out against anybody in the shaded lane. “There are always additional incentives and we always give premium to players who deliver.”
Perkins, meanwhile, will get “a little less” than the P150,000/month first year maximum salary, according to team representative lawyer Raymund Zorilla. “But he will be very happy, I am sure.”
Teng, the big-scoring forward, has also yet to sit down with Alaska management, but team manager Dickie Bachmann said that he will propose a package that will be very close to the maximum.
Standhardinger already inked a three-year deal with San Miguel Beer worth a little over P8 million for the next three seasons, though he will not be joining the Beermen until June, or in the early part of the Commissioner’s Cup because he has to play out a contract with Hong Kong in the Asean Basketball League.
Maliksi gets new deal
Meanwhile, Sy said the Elite have presented gunslinger Allein Maliksi a two-year extension for the veterans’ maximum worth around P10 million.
“We are just waiting for him to sign on the dotted line, so to speak,” Sy said of Maliksi, who was shipped by Star to the Elite in one of the more celebrated trades during the middle of last season.
Sy is also excited about Emil Palma, his second round choice whom he described as “the sleeper” of the Draft who could turn out to be a “(Marc) Barroca or (Jio) Jalalon type of a player.
Meanwhile, the league’s board of governors will fly to Los Angeles in the United States for a five-day planning session starting Nov. 10 to chart the direction the league will take in the next season.
To be tackled are the formats of the Commissioner’s Cup and Governors’ Cup as well as other possible league activities.